


Fifteen Moments After A Meeting

by thesorceressfromthelake



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, M/M, Teacher-Student Relationship, also not really sort of, kinda not really actually
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-20
Updated: 2017-12-20
Packaged: 2019-02-17 15:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13080060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thesorceressfromthelake/pseuds/thesorceressfromthelake
Summary: ADA Rafael Barba has resigned himself to certain facts and a man named Sonny finds the entire situation hilarious.





	Fifteen Moments After A Meeting

**Author's Note:**

  * For [copperleaves](https://archiveofourown.org/users/copperleaves/gifts).



> Dedicated to lauramoon who requested "I had a one night stand and oops it's my college professor." This is...sort of that.

The facts were these.

 

Firstly, or secondly, perhaps, depending on what viewpoint you look in on: Dominick Carisi Jr., called Sonny by his family members and very few else, aged 34, tall, lanky, and aggressively Italian American, had been enrolled in Fordham Law School for two years in the hopes of graduation and little else. This was described as a “waste of everyone’s [read: his own] time and money” by those who believed that he would not be a lawyer and “improving his life” for those who believed that he would, but Sonny Carisi seemed to have difficulty articulating his exact, or even any plans of his after graduation from school or, more accurately, from night school. He was a detective by day and, as can be quoted from his various dating profiles, enjoyed cooking more than the average person. 

 

He was, at this current moment, heading toward the aforementioned class with considerably more cheer than could reasonably expected from someone who had just worked a nine hour shift and was about to go to night school for another three. This level of cheerfulness, while partially induced by chemical means, was at least partially just a facet of his personality which had been frequently been described as overeager. 

 

So, overeagerly, he heads to class, sitting down only half paying attention, expecting to hear the very British, very female voice of Professor Pond when instead, he hears an entirely different voice at the front of the room. “...which is why I will be substituting here for the next two weeks.” He knows that voice. Sonny jerks up and stares down at the man who stares back up, seemingly startled by the sudden movement above.

 

The man stops speaking for a few, long, awkward moments that the rest of the class is most likely experienced very differently than Sonny is.

 

The man’s voice returns. “My name is ADA Rafael Barba.” And of course, Sonny knows ADA Barba, who doesn’t, and he’s kicks himself for not recognizing him back then, but that guy introduced himself as Raf and how was Sonny supposed to connect those dots in his mind. ADA Barba, or Raf, or whatever Sonny’s going to be calling him in his head for the next two weeks, seems pretty intent on not making eye contact, which is fine, because Sonny needs a bit of time to think.

 

3

 

“How did class go?” Olivia Benson, called Liv by all of her friends, Sarge by most others, and Olivia by no one, thinks it’s hilarious that Rafael teaching, as she has told him many times. 

 

He looks at her. 

 

“Oh. God. Sorry I even asked.”

  
  


14

 

Sonny Carisi leans over, far further into his personal space than Rafael Barba would normally allow. “Let’s go out. Come on. Just a drink.”

 

A drink is what got them into this situation in the first place. But Rafael considers, considers Sonny’s legs and his eyes and the shine in them. Considers ethics and weighs them against ‘how inappropriate is this situation, actually,’ and ‘Pond’s coming back in about three months anyway,’ not that he has, in fact, told the class that yet. He’s still not certain they know where she’s gone. And this night feels a lot like another night, a long time ago and everything’s so warm and comfortable and Rafael can’t help but smile, more brightly than he thinks he feels.

 

“Drink tonight, dinner tomorrow?”

 

And that was that. 

13

 

Rafael doesn’t want to break the tentative friendship they have built up, so he keeps his hands to himself, but when Sonny accidentally bumps his shoe with his shoe, Rafael presses his foot down onto his foot. 

 

Sonny stays exactly where he was. Rafael thinks he might have leaned in. 

 

8

 

It’s brighter and sunnier than the officer named Sonny expected when he and Raf-Professor Barba-Rafael finally got a chance to talk. Sonny isn’t entirely certain how they ended up together having coffee but he certainly isn’t about to complain about the situation. Rafael Barba seemed to show up everywhere now that Sonny knew he existed and they couldn’t avoid each other forever so when Barba finally corners him and invites him out to coffee Sonny, well, he can’t exactly claim to be surprised. They go to the same coffee shop every morning and Sonny didn’t notice until he saw Barba rush out several weeks ago.

 

They sit across from one another and Sonny realizes he’s only ever talked to Babra at night. Not that what they’re doing right now is talking, because Barba is staring deep into his coffee--black, a weird amount of sugar--and not talking. Sonny’s going to have to be the adult in this situation; he’s pretty sure that he’s going to have adult through their entire relationship. Not that this can really qualify their dynamic as a relationship. 

 

“So why did you--”

 

“I want to apologize.” Barba forced the words out and Sonny’s eyes widened, almost amused. Though, he’s not entirely certain what Barba is apologizing for. For avoiding him, for sleeping with him in the first place? Or some other imaginary problem? He didn’t realize. He didn’t realize Barba felt guilty. But he had to; nothing else made sense. 

 

Babra’s not any more responsible for this situation than Sonny is.

 

“I get it. This situation is really weird. But--” Sonny hesitates, trying to figure out the best way, exactly, to phrase what he needs to say, “we didn’t do anything wrong. Yeah, sure it’s--inconvenient that we met again like this but--” Sonny cuts himself off, clearly thinking. He can’t read Barba’s expression.

 

“You’re a temporary replacement for my professor. We really don’t have to see each other again after this, if you don’t want to. So, let’s try to stop worrying about everything that happened and we can just pretend each other doesn’t exist except in class. Alright?”

 

Barba remains silent. “Agreed?”

 

“Yes.”

 

11

 

Much to his consternation, ADA, part time professor, all around cynic and miserable person Rafael Barba finds Sonny Carisi a considerably more personally presence than he was strictly suspecting. They fell into the habit of sitting together at Damanto’s Coffee Hut, run by a man named Mickey Keagan, not anybody named Damanto, rather quickly and he found Sonny’s presence more soothing than he’d rather. Now that Sonny seems to realize that he actually exists it’s difficult to pull himself away from him.

 

Well that’s not entirely true. It’s easy enough to ignore him in class. Overeagerness and puppy dog eyes are really not a good look on Sonny. 

 

What is a good look on Sonny is reckless confidence. It’s easy to forget that, in only the most technical of ways, Rafael has some position of authority over Sonny now when Sonny is pressuring him to try cinnamon flavored coffee or eat healthier, positions which seem to contradict one another, or chatting aimlessly about his siblings (Rafael can’t even imagine growing up with three sisters) law review, his job as a cop (Rafael is more than a little surprised he’s managing to juggle so many positions at one time and manages to hide how impressive he finds that.)

 

“You know, you could tutor me,” says Sonny after Rafael complains to him one too many times about a typo he made on a paper.

 

Sonny doesn’t deserve a response. 

 

4

 

Dominick Carisi Jr., called Sonny, takes time and quiet reflection that would normally be prayer, to formulate his opinion on the situation. Deciding he could not pray over this particular situation he found himself in, the man called Sonny sits down and thinks long and hard about the particulars about sleeping with the man he now has as his professor and decides he finds the situation, in his own words, or thoughts as the case might be, fucking hilarious. 

 

So the man named Sonny sits over at his sister Gina’s dining room table, after dinner but before the point in time her daughter started screaming about whether she was allowed to watch television, decided that he needed to tell someone, anyone, what happened, and he decided that his sisters deserved to know in the most humiliating way possible. Because that’s simply the type of person that he is.

 

“So, I banged my professor.” He says, to groans of “oh gross” and “who are you, Teresa?” from Gina and Bella respectively. Sonny’s a little proud actually. He hasn’t done a single controversial thing in his love life since he came out. In between Bella dating ex-cons and Gina’s fourth engagement his siblings had decided that Sonny’s own stories of boring first dates was stable and, thus, boring.

 

Bella seems to recover first. “Wait, what professor? Isn’t your professor married? Sonny, that’s…”

 

Sonny waves that off, really not having any desire to get a lecture for something he didn’t even do. “Nah, not her. It’s kinda a long story.”

 

Gina leans back, smirking at Bella. “We’ve got time.”

 

Still, he should probably clarify. “So, I was at this bar…”

  
  


9

 

Rafael Barba, by his very nature, is a contradictory person. The moment that Sonny Carisi gives him permission to stay as far away from him as he likes, Rafael can’t help but sidle closer. All the hesitance and reluctance he had formally associated with their acquaintance had washed away almost immediately with the sudden knowledge that he didn’t, actually, have to acknowledge what happened, or Sonny, and that Sonny wasn’t holding anything against him. It’s absurd to feel so guilty, when the situation isn’t even your problem.

 

So, he greeted him before class, waved at him in the hallway.

 

And it continued on this way, again and again, creating a casual something, something like friendship until--

 

Until Sonny sat down right across from him one morning and offered to buy him coffee.

 

Which is something Rafael really can’t turn down.

  
  


6

 

Rafael Barba was a better teacher than Sonny thought he would be at first. He did not make the best first impression on the class, partially because he was replacing a relatively popular professor, and partially because he has the dour, distant teaching method, which was a fairly stark contrast to anything Sonny had experienced before. The man clearly wasn’t used to teaching, but he explained the law clearly, answered questions thoroughly, and tended to challenge them a little more than necessary, in some of his classmates opinions, especially for night school.

 

Miranda Pond, former defense attorney, currently missing professor, part time volunteer at the Children’s Hospital, and ameature thespian, describes the law as a force for justice. Not overtly, she’s careful and professional; she knows not to mix her personal opinions with the study of case law, but she can’t hold her passion in, her clear formulated opinion that the law must be used to serves greater justice. To keep the innocent out of prison, to provide fairness to the guilty. 

 

Sonny admired her greatly. She’s helped inspire him to become an immigration lawyer. Which is what he thinks he plans on doing after he graduates. Inside his head, he tacks on a maybe. 

 

But Barba. Rafael. Whatever his name is: he shows the law is what it is. It’s nothing but a system he works within. The law serves no higher moral purpose. Bend the law to your moral purpose. Rafael shows them to use the law, to achieve their ends. Which, reading unspoken thoughts, words between words, Sonny thinks Barba means should be justice, too. 

 

Sonny admires that almost more. 

 

On the negative sign of things, Rafael Barba seems to have taken to pretending Sonny does not exist or, if he does exist, that he has never met him before. Since Rafael Barba has started teaching, Sonny has not been in a room alone with him, and not by his own design. 

 

The man named Sonny has tried 1. staying late after class to talk to him, (Barba disappeared immediately), 2. scheduling a meeting with him (his email ignored), and 3. going to his office hours (which were immediately cancelled.) He’s not entirely certain what plan four should be and if he should consult Bella and Gina on what it should be, but he’s fairly certain it should be an escalation of some kind. 

 

Sonny, personally, thinks Professor Barba, or ADA Barba, or Rafael, whatever he has chosen to call him in his head today, is the one with the problem in this situation. 

  
  


7

 

Rafael Barba knows he can’t hide forever, though he’s willing to give it his best shot. 

 

12

 

There’s something seriously wrong with Sonny, if he is seriously considering asking out his professor in the middle of work. 

 

There is not anything in particular wrong with the man named Sonny, but there are several reasons why he thinks there is. Including the natural fear of rejection all people experience, whether that manifests in physical symptoms, upset stomach, dry throat, headaches, or, as is in Sonny’s case, a simple mental block. An inability to act on his thoughts. 

 

5

 

Sonny is a better student than Rafael would have given him credit for. The man he met seemed, while not unacademically inclined, he certainly didn’t seem stupid, not the type of person who would put a level of passion and dedication into his essays as he has found after their first assignment. His paper is well-organized, well-research, and argues his theory clearly, with a clear understanding of case law.

 

He still gives Sonny an 86. There’s always room for improvement. 

 

No matter how hard he tries he can’t seem to call Sonny ‘Carisi,’ despite the fact that he very quickly started calling all of his students by their last names, much to their bewilderment. He hopes beyond hope that Miranda fully appreciates the effort he’s put forward for her, though he pales at the idea that she ever finds out that he slept with one of her students.

 

He can’t call Sonny by his last name and he certainly can’t call him Sonny. He’s not certain he’s planning to talk to Sonny. It would feel wrong, somehow, in their current situation. There’s appropriate and there’s inappropriate and there’s a teacher dating a student, even if he’s only part time and it’s night school and they met long before then. Rafael isn’t the type of person to cross those types of lines. 

 

10

 

Rafael, and Sonny has settled on Rafael, is controlling, overly theatrical, and distant, all of which are pretty much things Sonny could have guessed before they started talking, as in, actually talking. But he’s equally passionate, generous, and surprisingly funny and Sonny can’t help but look forward to seeing him in the morning, in class, all around and all over the place.

  
  


1

 

Firstly, most certainly firstly, no matter how one looks at the situation: Rafael Barba has decided, within the confines of his own head because he will never voice what he’s done out loud, that he will never sleep with someone that he meets at a bar ever again. It’s possible that he will never sleep with anyone ever again, he’s not entirely certain yet, but it seems like a possibility. He decided this long before Sonny Carisi showed up in his temporary, exceptionally temporary, law review class. He decided this at the point in time when he started seeing Sonny everywhere. 

 

He meets a man at a bar, goes home with him, and suddenly that man is everywhere. Rafael sees him on the street, getting into a taxi, going to get coffee, in the courthouse, in the police station, he doesn’t understand how or why but that man is everywhere he wasn’t before. He’s clearly developed some sort of strange obsession, or the man, Sonny, is following him, or--or--something. He’s not certain what yet. He wants an explanation, deserves an explanation on why this man is always everywhere.

 

So when Rafael walks into Miranda Pond’s classroom, he isn’t surprised. Horrified and embarrassed, desperate to get out of a terrible situation, but not in any way surprised. Rafael’s been fairly certain he’s been cursed for a long, long time. 

 

15

Rafael Barba lies in bed with a very handsome man next to him and considers, all in all, the date went well. 

**Author's Note:**

> I want this to be narrated by Jim Dale. Is that so much to ask?


End file.
